The campanian active volcanoes: Somma-Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei

Somma-Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei are two of the most risky active volcanoes on earth, being<br>located in a three million people inhabited area. Although contiguous and coeval, the two volcanoes<br>do not share any important classificative patterns in the overall morphology, structure or magma<br>composition.<br>Several pieces of evidence on the relationships between the volcanic catastrophic events, the natural<br>environment and the population density, make the Campanian region a point of reference for the<br>volcanological research in the world.<br>In the last few years, specific studies, focused on stratigraphy, eruptive mechanisms and volcanotectonic<br>events, contributed to expand our knowledge on this area (see Mastrolorenzo et al., 2004<br>for a comprehensive review). At the present time, a still increasing amount of geo-archaeological<br>information allows us to understand better the effects of natural events which were acting on the<br>territory with different intensities and at different time scales. In this relatively small area, which<br>includes the Campanian Plain with its coasts and reliefs, few key sites, with well exposed sections,<br>will allow us to summarize its volcanological history by a through field-trip lasting two days.<br>Here, we find Somma-Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei, two of the most important districts of the<br>Quaternary volcanism of the Tyrrhenian margin. They have grown mostly on alluvial and marine<br>sediments filling up the graben formed during the Pliocene and Pleistocene by the subsidence of<br>Mesozoic carbonate platforms that make up the substrate of the Campanian plain; this platform now<br>lies about 2 km below the volcano (Scandone et al., 1991).